Berks college with a budget gap is selling its art collection, but it might not be worth that much

Story by Amanda Fries of Spotlight PA Berks Bureau

This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for Good Day, Berks, a daily dose of essential local stories at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/gooddayberks.

READING — Albright College will auction most of its artwork in July as the private liberal arts school continues to address a growing deficit.

But what that collection includes, how much it might be worth, and what pieces hold local and regional significance remain unclear.

College administrators and auctioneers did not immediately answer a Spotlight PA inquiry seeking an estimated value for the 2,008 works in Albright’s collection, most of which are works on paper and not expected to yield “significant financial return,” a college spokesperson said. Reading Public Museum, which has been in talks with Albright since late last year, wouldn’t say what pieces it might acquire.

The artwork hasn’t been properly stored, which has compromised some of the pieces, said James Gaddy, vice president of administration at Albright. But he would not say how many pieces have been damaged. Administrators and the auction company continue to comb the collection to determine what will be sold.

The collection going to auction from Albright’s Freedman Gallery was founded and funded by alum Doris C. Freedman, and opened on the college’s campus in 1976, featuring work by 25 artists, including Nancy Grossman, Sylvia Stone, Sam Francis, and Ben Schonzeit. The gallery primarily displayed contemporary work by American artists, and over the years amassed a collection of prints, photographs, paintings, and sculptures.

Albright no longer has historical information about the gallery on its website, which now has a note announcing the college’s plan to “part with its institutional art collection.”

An Artstor directory of the Freedman Gallery collection lists over 1,000 items, including work by Salvador Dali, Ronald Abram, Yaacov Agam, William Henry Johnson, Robert Bolles, and Alice Baber. One piece by Baber, The Light of the River, was sold for $25,400 to an undisclosed buyer in 2024 through Freeman’s Auction House in Philadelphia.

Gaddy said the auction of the remaining pieces will serve as the “primary mechanism” to sell the college’s art collection, which has become untenable for the school to maintain as it grapples with a multimillion-dollar deficit.

Pook & Pook in Downingtown is scheduled to host the auction in person from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 14 and 15. The auction will also be hosted online at 9 a.m. July 16. The auctioneer said they were still evaluating the art collection to determine what would be offered, and could not provide a dollar value on the available pieces.

In response to emailed questions from Spotlight PA, Gaddy said one of the primary reasons for auctioning off the collection is its lack of maintenance, which has made it difficult to find a museum that would accept the works or potential buyers.

“The collection has not been cared for in a manner consistent with professional museum standards for several years, due to limited institutional resources,” he wrote. “In some cases, this lack of proper care has unfortunately compromised the condition of the artwork.”

Last year, Albright College cut 53 positions, canceled some academic majors, and sold property and artwork to close a $20 million deficit. The college in December also received permission to borrow up to $25 million of its endowment fund to prevent “the risk of closure.”

Despite the bleak picture painted in legal documents granting Albright access to its endowment, administrators told Reading City Council in February that the college had no plans to close and would be budget-neutral by the summer.

“To Albright’s credit, we have been proactively addressing challenges, and there are no plans to close,” Thomas Chaves, the college’s vice president of advancement, told Reading officials. “The college did operate with two years of operating deficits, but as I will share in more detail here, we have right-sized Albright, so that this year we are forecasting a budget-neutral, if not budget-positive, outcome for the year based on the steps we have taken.”

Future of the gallery

Albright’s approach to selling the collection has ruffled the local and regional art community as well as Albright’s donors.

Proponents of the college art collections say students’ exposure to the arts makes them well-rounded and enriches their lives by challenging their thinking and expanding their minds.

Jaap van Liere, chair of the college’s Visual Arts Committee that was dissolved in 2024, said he understands that Albright is financially strapped and the administration is making “tough decisions,” but thinks selling the art collection won’t make much money.

“I don’t support it because I don’t think it’s worthwhile,” the Albright alum told Spotlight PA in a recent phone interview. “There are expenses attached to maintaining a collection and [the college is] prioritizing where those expenses lay in their game plan to survive. Don’t get me wrong, I would love the collection to stay and enrich college students.”

From the outset, administrators acknowledged selling Albright’s art collection won’t yield a windfall.

What artwork the Reading Public Museum might acquire also remains unclear despite Albright acknowledging plans last year to work with the institution to offload some of the collection.

Reading Public Museum Director and CEO Geoffrey Fleming said the museum hasn’t made any final decisions on artwork from Albright, but they hope those discussions “may lead to a positive outcome for Albright and the greater Reading community.”

Some works won’t be sold, Gaddy said, because of “donor restrictions, artistic intent,” or importance to the college’s history. Artwork depicting campus life, former presidents, and other pieces notable to Albright will remain.

He said selling the artwork isn’t about making money but ensuring the pieces find “homes where they can be professionally preserved and appreciated.”

“Maintaining a collection of this size and quality requires specialized storage, climate control, conservation support, and security — resources that Albright can no longer sustain responsibly,” he continued.

When Freedman, who graduated from Albright in 1950. founded the college’s art gallery, she worked with students and faculty to cultivate the collection, van Liere said.

But when Albright began making moves to sell its art collection, the Freedman family wasn’t informed. Freedman’s three daughters told Artnet in May they were unaware of the pending sale.

The sisters called Albright’s decision to sell the collection “shortsighted and counterproductive,” and questioned the legality of the college’s efforts. They said the move guts the art collection and alters the intent of the donation to Albright.

Reached through a publicist at the Public Art Fund, a nonprofit founded in 1977 by Doris Freedman, the family said they have not connected with the college for “a conversation at length” and had no further comment.

The college’s failure to involve the Freedman family in its decision to sell the gallery collection parallels its approach to tapping its endowment fund. Donors were blindsided when Albright went to borrow against the fund earlier this year. The court’s approval also gave the college unrestricted access to scholarship funds.

An Albright spokesperson said in an email that officials “recognize that communication could have been better,” and that the college’s advancement team is “actively reaching out to donors” now.

Gaddy said the gallery remains a “vital part” of the college, but did not say whether the Freedman family was consulted prior to Albright’s efforts to sell its artwork.

“In keeping with the initial establishment of the Freedman Gallery, it will continue to serve as a creative and educational space for student, faculty, and visiting artist exhibitions — a core part of our academic and community engagement efforts,” Gaddy said.

Van Liere was less certain about the future of the college’s gallery and hoped for the best.

“All of that is very much now in limbo, and one doesn’t really know what the future bodes,” he said. “One hopes that the future bodes [for] an ongoing Freedman Gallery exhibition and program.”

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